And we got SNOW

That 4 letter word that some enjoy and some don't.  Not all of my leaves have dropped as you can see in this picture

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow but not during the week!  hahahaha oh boy to be a kid again - NOT!
The first real snow fall of this year.

Cakes in a jar -

My sister, Leah June and I baked some Pistachio cakes in pint jars for her Blue Star Mothers of America group to put in boxes they were shipping to servicemen.  Well we decided to experiment with other cakes and flavors.

Okay the 6 in the back are Lemon cake and the 6 in front are pound cake - and here are what they each look like after being baked.

Lemon is on the right and the pound cake is on the left.  They are moist and very tasty!  I will be making more of these.  Who would have thunk?

Blue Star Moms and Christmas Boxes

This past Saturday I spent with my sister, Leah June and her BSM group filling Christmas boxes for some troops and also packing coming home boxes too.  I took a video of the President of the group and she explained what we were doing this Saturday and this group does this 3 - 4 times a year-

 

Now I have some pictures of the tables that were full of all the stuff we packed into the boxes: small Christmas trees, ornaments, snacks, hand warmers, socks, shampoo, deodorant, hand sanitizers, and a whole lot more - Oh, and of course the jar cakes - yes cakes cooked in pint jars!  

And a Veteran, Cricket lost her dog, Sasha last week - Cricket baked some homemade dog biscuits to be sent to the K-9 units

Here is the group and some of the boxes that were filled, taped, tagged and ready to go!

It feels good to be able to do even something small like packing a box of goodies to be sent to serviceman and praying it brightens their day just a little to know we are thinking of them and thanking them for their service.  God Bless America and those that keep her safe.

Do you have a romance with God?

I was listening to a Christian station on the radio this past weekend.  And the commentator was interviewing Jeff Kinley about a book he wrote "The Christian Zombie Killers Handbook".  It is about a new way to look at sin, grace and salvation and the raging beast within all of us and the author names it "Zombie" or an old word SIN.  Now this caught my attention, but what really got me thinking was a statement he said about having a romance with God.  I got to thinking do I have a romance? Do I get excited about spending time with Him? Excited about spending time with other Christians talking, learning, digging into God's word and His teachings?  Am I the best bride I can be?  Do I try to be better every day?  Am I humble or am I prideful and thinking God will just fill me with what He wants me to be without me working on me too?  I have to say I had a better romance with God when I was going through grief over my parents dying and also at the same time going through a divorce - I think that was because I was hanging on by the knot at the end of the rope so to speak. So why has the romance dwindled?  God has not changed, He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.  So it must be me that has let the romance wane.  I really need to work on my side of the romance. I know what to do but do not - I struggle all the time. 

Pot Pies, Pizza Sauce & Apples - Oh my...

Another weekend spent cooking, mixing and freezing!  My sister, Leah June and I made pot pies:  She cooked the chicken overnight in a crock-pot.

Then we shredded the chicken and diced carrots, celery and onions and cooked them in butter

We used the Pioneer Woman's Pot Pie recipe which we timed 10 times for the approx.14 cups of chicken, after veggies cooked about 5 minutes or so then we added the chicken and chicken broth.

After this we added the seasonings; which called for a herb called Turmeric - neither one of us had ever used this and found out it is a cousin to ginger and used in Indian and Asian cooking - who knew?  Anyways, we put the pot pie mixture in foil containers with lids - I found these at Good Cents.  We added a bag of frozen peas just before we put the mixture into the containers.

top with a pie crust

and put a lid on them.  We made 24, cooked one that we split - it was very good but for me the next time I make this recipe I will leave out the Thyme - too strong a flavor for my taste buds.

Leah June and I put them in the freezer and tomorrow night I will be vacuum sealing them (I hope) - have to see if the Seal-a-meal crushes them when pulling out the air...will have to use the gentle cycle and not normal one.  I will post how that goes later...

Onto our pizza sauce:

okay, my other sister, Sandi - years and years ago gave us a yeast pizza dough recipe which all of us have used since then to make homemade pizzas. Now we find out she has been holding out on us with a sauce recipe - and it smells so Italian, rich and thick!  I mean this sauce was good enough to eat without the pizza!  Contact me if you want the recipe and I will send it to you but remember my sister Sandi found it first.  We 10 times the amounts and got 10 servings of the sauce - enough for 1 large pizza or 2 individual pizzas with lots of sauce

Oh, and of course smelling so good - we made individual pizzas for ourselves for lunch.

Leah June's has the olives and mine doesn't, and you can see who likes theirs more spicy.

Now onto the apples.  Leah June and I went to an orchard and bought Melrose apples.  We would have picked them ourselves but it was raining and muddy.  These apples are crisp, juicy and a little tart.  We bought 1/2 bushel to get apples into the freezer for pies, applesauce, cakes, etc.  I have a peeler, corer, slicing machine for apples.

it does all 3 things simultaneously...then I would cut it in half and separate the slices

and then we measured out approx. 5 cups of sliced apples to a bag for the freezer and we got 11 bags.

of course we vacuum sealed them too!  I have enough frozen meals to last for a long while and all I will need to add is sides and/or salads.  God has blessed me greatly!  He is good all the time! 

My sister Leah June and I have cooked and frozen numerous amounts of food over the last few months.  Getting together makes doing this fun and not so boring, then to be able to divide our work among ourselves just makes it that much better.  You never know what we will be getting ourselves into next...leave me a message and if you want to be notified of my next posting sign up as a follower.  Until next time I pray God blesses you richly.